I apologize for not writing this earlier when I posted the last chapter of Malachar's Curse; I meant too but kept getting distracted. I know that I had said previously that the next chapters to be posted were to be for Curiosity Killed the Cat, but I had a most distressing event happen. Unfortunately, the hard drive that I use to store my work was somehow corrupted, and when I ran a disk check, I found that I had a massive amount of bad clusters.
It's dead, kaput, unreadable; thankfully, I have two other drives in my system. However, I lost over two chapters of work and all of my notes regarding plot devices, character development, and key sticking points that I used to make sure that my story stayed consistent. Example-I have notes that I skim through frequently on each character to remember things like David and Amber's mother's favorite flowers are Tiger Lilies or that their father calls her Olive. It's the little details like that which are needed to create a rich environment that flows well, and all of those connect me dots are required for that.
Stupidly, I'd failed to back it up onto a memory stick as I usually do because the one I reserved for Curiosity had died while at my family cottage, and I neglected to purchase a replacement. Thankfully, I have and use a separate one for Curse. So, feeling quite despondent and a little depressed at having lost so much effort, I turned back to Malachar, writing the latest offering, and starting on the next (which incidentally is at well over 10k words right now).
A good buddy of mine who is way more talented at fixing computers and recovering data than I am has taken pity on me and is trying to see if he can recover my writings. My fingers are crossed. He should let me know sometime next week, and then I will either be rejoicing or cursing (play on words intended). Meanwhile, I am smashing the keyboard with two fingers to carry on discovering what is next in store for Jake and friends.
I am also considering getting a Patreon account to maybe help with the monthly bills. I definitely could use a new computer; this one was bought in 2011 and is due for the recycle bin. I am a retired Mason (back and joint issues) and was house-painting part-time until Covid came along. My funds are drying up, and work is nonexistent, and pension age is still a little ways off. Personally, I'd love to get painting contracts again because I actually love doing the work, and it keeps me active. Still, no one wants a stranger in their house right now (at least where I live), and that type of work is something homeowners can easily put off indefinitely. I'll need to figure something out soon because I'm not one to ask for government handouts.
Barring painting, I would love to write full-time if I could; that way, I could spend way more time banging out chapters and have greater flexibility to take care of my aging and ailing father. I have been driving him to numerous doctor's appointments to see if he is eligible to be placed on the lung transplant waiting list. He has COPD, and it has been getting quite severe over the last year. It's hard for my mother to do it because he requires being pushed in a wheelchair and weighs 220 pounds, although she does it when I can't make it.
Luckily, I have supplemented my cash by taking care of a friend's house, property, and cat, but that will end on November first when they arrive back in the country. I see many other authors doing this and am weighing the pros and cons of joining their ranks. We'll see because I have no clue as to what to offer as extras if I do. I know that all the ones that I've seen have multiple tiers, each with a reward of some kind. I guess this is my way of putting out feelers to see what kind of response this gets, if any.
Sorry for the rambling.
TLDR.
Curiosity is on hold until I see if I can recover my data. Malachar is full steam ahead. The next chapter will be posted soon and promises to be stuffed full of everything. I hope that you continue to enjoy it, and once again, thanks for all of the great feedback.
Cheers!
Chris